Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
A person tested positive for covid-19 today at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital emergency department after turning up for an unrelated issue, the NZ Ministry of Health has confirmed.
In a statement, the ministry said the person presented with a non-covid-19 problem.
They had been assessed in the emergency department and spent a short amount of time in the adult short stay ward before deciding to go home.
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The patient’s answers indicated they had no exposure to covid-19, no symptoms, nor had they been at any location of interest, the ministry said.
The patient consented to a covid-19 swab but made the decision to leave prior to the result being available.
Their covid-19 test later came back positive.
The patient had been informed of their positive result, and they were now isolating, the ministry said.
The other patients who may have been exposed have all been identified, informed and are isolating.
All staff at Middlemore Hospital’s emergency department were wearing full PPE and the risk was low, so no staff were being stood down, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Health said more information would be provided tomorrow.
New cases down to 13
Earlier, the ministry reported that new daily covid-19 community case numbers dropped again to 13 today — all in Auckland.
At today’s media conference, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said more than half of the cases already had links made to the current outbreak.
There are now a total of 868 cases related to the delta outbreak in Auckland. There are 31 people in hospital today, all in Auckland. Five are in ICU or a high dependancy unit, three are requiring ventilation.
There were also two cases reported in managed isolation today.
Yesterday, there were 15 cases reported in the community.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
